


i don’t wanna slow dance (in the dark)

by saturnthemoon



Category: Akira (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Maybe - Freeform, draft, idk its gonna take me a while to finish this, its like halfway done, probably, slow burn shit, they’re in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 08:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19808314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturnthemoon/pseuds/saturnthemoon
Summary: kaneda shotaro is a misfit with no future and no place to call home. kei may or may not be the same. together, they’re enough of a mess to (maybe) make it work.(or: kaneda is bad at having feelings and good at making an uhhh butt of himself. kei is fed up with him but has no other friends. (sing-song voice) and manyyyy moreeeee)





	i don’t wanna slow dance (in the dark)

**Author's Note:**

> this is a rough draft for a story i’ve been writing in school literally since september. i don’t really have motivation to finish it but i’ll be damned if i don’t. tell me what you like, what you hate, whatever, don’t worry about being nice because even i hate this thing. but there’s not enough kanekei so i has to take matters into my own hands. maybe kanetetsu next
> 
> also i wasn’t allowed to write swears or i’d get reported (thank u high school) so there’s some funny substitutes i haven’t bothered to switch out in there

I don’t want a friend, I want my life in two.

Kaneda is fairly certain that he’s going to drop out of school.

The 11th grade is killing him slowly, and he’s definitely not going to college, so the struggle just seems pointless. He’s sick of the homework, of the teachers telling him he’s a worthless idiot (because he already knows that), of being punched by the gym teacher, and getting stupid detentions for skipping out on his stupid classes, because Kaneda doesn’t care about physics or how to divide square roots or whatever the hell they’re learning. 

All he really lives for is riding around Tokyo on his motorcycle and popping pills and getting girls to give him head in the bathroom. His friends’ parents still nag them about school, so dropping out isn’t an option for them, but for Kaneda, that isn’t really a problem. 

He guesses that he gets it from his parents, since his mom is an alcoholic who sleeps all day and parties all night, and his dad is a worthless bag of bones who drinks just as much as his mom but yells and smokes more. They don’t care about him. They’d prefer that he run away or die instead of eat their food and steal his dad’s cigarettes to puff on their balcony, rusty and gross with a view of the brightly colored buildings downtown. Kaneda could give less of a crap about what they want.

His parents are shadows behind stained glass; blurred and hidden behind things that are more important.

Kaneda feels a stir in his chest. He’s just the same as them, throwing chaos into the city in favor of slowing down and looking around himself. He knows, but he never changes. Taking in the brief high of life and cutting through Tokyo on a shiny, stolen bike. 

Waiting to get there; waiting for you. 

Kaneda heads to Harukiya after school to meet up with the other Capsules; a tradition three years in the making. The dive bar is as gross as they come, marked by crude graffiti and yells from the bartender when the crew bothers the other customers without actually buying anything. It’s basically theirs now, and nothing could stop them from coming in and drinking whatever they can get their hands on.

They gather at a beat up booth in the back, shouting and generally causing a ruckus when two people enter through the front door. The pair take a seat at the bar, looking around the establishment warily as if watching for someone. It catches Kaisuke’s attention, who bumps Kaneda with his shoulder and nods over to the newcomers. This gets the attention of everyone else too, surprisingly, and they all gape at one of the visitors.

It’s some dude and some chick, both wearing long, dark coats and speaking to each other in hushed tones. That’s not exciting, maybe it’s a drug deal or something; they don’t care, but it’s the girl, no, woman who has the gang's interest. It’s a bit hard to tell in the dark, but she’s pretty. Prettier than most who come strolling in here. It only takes a few seconds of staring for the teens to all get the brilliant idea to hit on her. They egg each other on, daring amongst themselves on who should do it.

Yamagata coughs into his hand and speaks up, pushing Kaneda out of the booth and sloshing his cheap shochu. “I think we should have our fearless leader try to tap that,” he grins.

Kaneda glares, and tries to sit back into the booth, but Yamagata slides into his seat, giving him no way to get in. 

“Seriously?” He turns to Tetsuo, who raises an eyebrow and shakes his head.

Kaisuke laughs at him, slapping Yamagata’s arm and jerking his thumb at their friend. “Can you believe this guy? Too scared to try and catch a broad?”

Yamagata guffaws with the other teens, whose volume is increasing by the second. They all yell at him, teasing and poking fun with “Yeah man! What’s your damage?” and “Come on you wimp!”

“Okay fine!” Kaneda yells back, before punching Yamagata in the other arm. “Watch and learn, rookie. Grab a frickin pen and take some notes so you’ll know how to not cream your pants every time a girl looks in your direction.” He still goes over to the girl at the bar, the Capsules whistling all the way behind him. He’s not one to back down from a challenge or a chance to hit on a girl, but the guy next to her looks like he might tear him in two if he tries. He’s definitely not interested in a slugfest over a girl he doesn’t care about.

He swaggers over, approaching the girl by resting his elbow on the counter and leaning forward. 

“Hey, do you come around here often?” He asks, interrupting their conversation. She’s trying to cover her face with her hat, and he can barely see her eyes, but he can tell she’s not looking at him. 

She doesn’t respond, so Kaneda asks her again, “I said ‘hey’; are you listening? Do you come here often or what?”

“Will you get out of here, kid? She obviously doesn’t want to talk to you,” the man beside her growls.

“Will you butt out of this conversation? It’s pretty obvious that I’m talking to her,” Kaneda shoots back, annoyed that this chick won’t look at him and that her bodyguard or whatever is trying to get in the way of what is absolutely not there. 

“And I told you to scram before I hurt you.”

“Oh wow! Big man over here, huh? Let me finish this,” Kaneda gestures to the space between him and the girl, “before I kick your butt.”

The man suddenly stands up, making Kaneda back away pathetically, hands up in surrender. The look on his face makes Kaneda realize he doesn’t really have it in him today to brawl with this guy.

“Okay, yeah, you got me; I’ll get going,” he says, walking backwards to the other Capsules, who yell insults at the man and crude remarks at how much of a wimp Kaneda was being . 

“Just shut it you guys! Let’s get out of here before I really give it to him,” Kaneda gruffs.

“Yeah, I would’ve loved to see you get destroyed by him,” laughs Yamagata, only to receive a kick in the shin from Kaneda, making him laugh harder.

“I’m sure you would have, string bean,” he replies, poking at his friend’s height. “Hey, where is Tetsuo? He’s been quiet all night,” Kaneda asks, turning his head in search for his friend in the group of teens. 

“Tetsuo? He went outside after you tried getting the girl to even look at you. He was probably embarrassed by how pathetic you looked,” Watanabe answers, shaking his head in mock-disappointment.

The gang turns a corner into the alleyway to get their bikes with Kaneda as leader, walking backwards to talk to them.

“Would you guys shut up about that already? I don’t need to be remind about what a cold dog that girl was.” He turns forward to discover Tetsuo Shima sitting on the seat of his bike, messing with the controls.

Of course Tetsuo wants to ride the bike. Who wouldn’t?

It rides smooth under the road of Tokyo’s highways, speeding past the cars and neon signs of the city within seconds. The colorful lights reflect in hued streaks on the shine of his bright red bike. The motorcycle is well taken care of, but still decorated in small imperfections that perfectly wore it in. Stickers cover the fairing of the front wheel, with slight scratches and dents of the wheel rim and footpeg. The smooth leaning shape of the frame encapsulated the rest of the gang, all small details that made Kaneda’s bike his. 

“You wanna try it Tetsuo? I’m sure it’d be too much for you to handle,” his voice bouncing off the brick walls. Tetsuo looks up in surprise, before grumpily shifting off the seat, eyes cast downward in annoyance. 

Tetsuo hauls onto his bike with the rest of the boys, eyeing Kaneda as he slowly runs a finger along the black windshield, seemingly in a trance. 

And he kind of is; reflecting on the stony attitude of that beautiful girl, how she didn’t even meet his eyes. That sucks, and he can tell that the boys will be bugging him about it for a solid week, but in the end, he’s never going to see her again. Kaneda can just try again with another girl, for sure. 

“Hey doofus; ya coming? Don’t tell me that guy beat the hell out of your brain cells, too!” Tetsuo calls, turning the front of his bike out of the alley and following his friends.

He whips his head around at the tease, before clamouring onto his own bike to chase Tetsuo.

“Oh you’re gonna eat it, ya hoser!” He hollers back, and an angry smile makes its way on his face, before zooming out of the alleyway and into the brightly-lit Tokyo night.

\-----

They have a new student in his class the next day. She stands in front of homeroom and introduces herself as Kei. He doesn’t catch her last name; he’s too distracted staring at her face. 

The girl looks familiar, and the more that he stares at her, the more he realizes that this is the prudish girl from last night at the old man’s place. Seeing her now in the full daylight is a wildly sharp contrast from the dim lamps and smoke yesterday.

She’s tall - maybe taller than him - with dark hair framing her face, slightly curled at the end and messy bangs just grazing her neatly trimmed eyebrows. Her soft eyelashes brush against her cheek with every blink. She talks in a natural pout, and her hooded eyes sweep the room obervently, making her look at least a little bit pissed. She looks scary. 

Kei shifts her gaze and begins to move towards him. Kaneda’s eyes widen when he realizes she’s just been told to take the seat behind him. She gives him a passive look as she passes, pleated skirt shifting with the movement of her legs, giving a conservative show of her knees. Kaneda thinks that she smells like roses, and has lips that look as soft as petals; and equally as pink. He can’t help but think that this icy broad is as captivating and beautiful as Minako Honda. Maybe just as intimidating, too. 

He’s enamoured.

It only takes him about thirty seconds to get his wits back together before realizing that this girl is hot. Plus she’s new to the school, so all these other creeps are gonna pounce on her as soon as she leaves the class for break. He might not be any better than those bozo’s are, but he knows for a fact that he’s cooler and better looking than half of these clowns, so he formulates a plan to woo her before lunch. 

It’s put into motion when Mr. Furukawa finishes going on about some bullcrap, the bell finally rings, and kids begin to rise from their seats for lunch, Kei amongst them. She’s in the middle of pulling out the textbook for their next class when Kaneda leans back in his chair to capture her attention. He leans back pretty far, until the tips of his hair are touching the edge of her desk before she glances up to him. His eyes are straining from looking up so far, and when she gives him glare, he gets the hint and sits up right again. Now he’s got her.

“So, uh, ‘sup. You like the school or whatever? You look like the studious type; I’m into it, doll face,” Kaneda says, trying to keep the blood from rushing to his face from being upside down.

“What?” she asks, looking mildly annoyed at the fact that he’s even talking to her. Kei doesn’t seem to recognize him, and the prickly wall she’s put in between them tells Kaneda that she doesn’t appreciate the advances. He decides to dial the aggression back a bit, but continue with the same amount of persistence. 

“I said… How do you like school?” he tries to comeback, but the unmoving expression on her face tells him that she’s not interested in having a conversation. Whatever, he’ll make her interested. 

“Really? What’s it to you…” she leads off, signalling for a response.

“I’m Kaneda,” said boy replies, holding his thumb up to his face, a grin gracing his features. The smile gets the girls every time.

“Kaneda. Aren’t you the kid that tried hitting on me last night? I don’t know if you noticed, but I don’t plan on doing anything with you, Mr. Smooth Guy,” she says, tone firm. “If this is another one of your lame attempts to get up my skirt, we can stop talking now. Better luck next time; with a girl that’s only got half a brain.”

So she does remember him.

Kaneda wasn’t expecting the backtalk, and is flattered that she remembers him. “Aw, Jesus Christ, what’re you so defensive for? Never had an upstanding guy just try to talk to you before? Don’t be so cold, woman. ‘M just trying to ask you a question, ya know. Unless you want to skip the talking and get straight to WHOOP next door.”

That’s enough for Kei, who looks like she’s about two seconds away from kicking Kaneda in the nuts. Other than the scary face she’s making, she’s calm; like a tempest in a teapot. It’s frightening. “Can you get a clue, or is it too hard to understand that I’m not interested in having fun with you in an empty classroom through your thick skull?” He gapes at the bite in her words.

“Why don’t you keep quiet before you hurt yourself, Kaneda? And to answer your question, school is fine.” 

And with that, she gets up and leaves the classroom. 

He guesses that it didn’t really work. 

______________

When Kei comes back, so does the rest of the class, resuming the lecture on whatever the hell the teacher is going on about. 

The bell rings a few hours later when the day ends, and Kaneda considers trying to make a move on Kei again, but when he turns around, she’s already picking up her bag and moving to the doorway. Crap. 

He decides that he’s going to let her go today, not willing to anger her again. Hopefully she doesn’t get jumped by the upperclassmen (he figures the first years will be too intimidated by her to make a move). He forces his arms through his ratty jacket and heads out as well. 

By the time he gets down the steps of the main entrance, his friends are already waiting for him with girls hanging off of their arms. It’s a nice perk of riding around Tokyo while getting busted as a chaotic bike gang - the chicks that are into that kind of stuff. Sure, they’re all too yippy and annoying (kinda like his neighbor’s little dog), but they’d do anything for the guys so long as they’re kept around. 

One of the girls grabs onto his arm with incredible force, dragging him closer to her side as the walk along with the others. This one always seems to pick Kaneda out of the group, so he figures that she likes him (he can tell as much based on how eager she is to bleep him) but he can never seem to remember her name. She lights a cigarette and takes a puff for herself before handing it to Kaneda, who inhales and spits the entire thing out, still lit and rolling along the frozen walkway.

“Oh, Kaneda!” the girl laughs with false scolding. His gesture was meant to come off as rude and dismissive, but she seems to think that it means he’s hitting on her back. Why? He doesn’t have a clue. It’s pretty tiring and ridiculous. 

Beside him, his friends chatter loudly as they make their way out from the gate of the school. Their bikes are parked in the alley behind the school, so they turn onto the main sidewalks to retrieve them. It’s as plain a walk as ever, but when Kaneda looks up from briskly rubbing his hands together, he catches sight of someone ahead. He squints, before quickly realizing who it was. Kei, with what looked like the guy she was with only a few nights ago. 

Kaneda can feel his steps falter, just a little bit, at the sight of her. 

It’s ridiculous, and Kaneda knows it. He’s never acted like this before, all nervous and hesitant, around a girl that he might have the hots for. Sure, he’s fooled around plenty of times, even going so far as sleeping with the nurse who he coaxes into getting pills and head from. She’s not even the only one, either. Kaneda is handsome and he’s fully aware; it’s half the reason any of these girls bother sticking around him, why they think that they love him. 

So why does the sight of this girl unravel his carefully built front? What makes that chick special?

The girl hanging on his arm seems to notice his apparent distress, and for how airheaded she is, is able to put together his hesitant steps and his focused stare on the girl in front of him. It’s not certain what Kaneda is thinking, but there are a couple of things that she could assume, he guesses. Apparently she isn’t happy with the conclusion she comes up with. 

“Okay, Kaneda, who is that girl you’ve been staring at? Hm? I’m right here you know,” she says, tugging hard on his arm and forcing their eyes to meet. 

“O-ow, for hecks sake, what’d you do that for?” He yelps, coming back to his senses. 

“I asked you who that is! You really must not care about anyone, huh?” she continues, beginning to garner the attention of his friends, who have moved past them already. “Girls must mean nothing to you! You get tired of any blank who comes around offering to blank? Do you really not care about me? About all the time I’ve spent on you?”

Her face is an angry red and crocodile tears well in the corners of her eyes. The build up from one emotion to the next is so quick Kaneda is briefly stunned at how dramatic she is. 

“What are you talking about? Quit hanging off of my arm already!” He shouts, becoming more frustrated with her cry for attention. 

Kaneda hates it. The yelling, the whining, the sense of entitlement people have over him just because he’s a street rat. He doesn’t need to take crap from anyone; especially not this chick. She’s nothing to him; he owes her nothing. So he shakes her off of him and pushes her away. When Kaneda looks up, the Capsules are staring at him with amused faces, but it’s not funny to him at all. Tetsuo raises an eyebrow ever-so-slightly at him, and Kaisuke tries to keep his mouth closed at the quick but eventful interaction. The other girls look… upset? Kaneda doesn’t give a hoot about those ditzes though, so he just turns to walk away.

“Come on boys, let’s go,” he calls after his friends, leaving his hysteric (and now very angry) arm candy on the sidewalk. 

They eventually all make their way to their bikes, a journey that took far too long, with all of the girls amongst them gone. (Kaneda figures they stood by their friend in the name of sisterhood or something; they’ll be back in a week.) It’s only until the septet are zooming onto the streets of downtown Tokyo does Kaneda realize that Kei had left as soon as that girl started yelling. He feels relieved.

(He figures that seeing less of her will make him think of her less. Think less of her. He just wants to will away his stupid feelings. Whatever this is.)

\-----

He’s not one to soak in his feelings like a goth or something, but Kaneda can’t escape his weird gooey feelings. What’s he gonna do; hash it out to his parents? No way in hell he is. Kaneda figures a ride around the city will take his mind off things. 

For a while, it really does. The feeling of the air whipping around every turn and the rev of the bike keep him feeling pumped. The engine gives a loud but even hum, pushing 70 miles per hour just as he leaves his neighborhood and exits the Taito Ward. It’s refreshing every time he leaves Sanya; not that he hates his home, but sometimes even a rat like him can get sick of seeing the same homeless people and dirty rodes and rusty streetlamps.

Kaneda doesn’t pay much attention to where he’s going, and it feels like hours pass before he finds himself hungry and tired of circling the city, just barely avoiding the brodies for speeding. He figures that he’s got at least 500 yen, and could pop into one of the convenience stores for a snack. 

Kaneda begins to park his bike in the alleyway next to the 7-11 when he realizes that he’s just stumbled upon… something. 

Further towards the end of the alley are a pair of guys seemingly jumping someone. The first goon has a person pushed up against one of the dirty brick walls, with the other next to him holding what looks to be a pipe. Usually Kaneda would ignore this kind of scene; he’s not in the mood for pissing off other gangs doing their business, but a feminine voice pulls him in for a closer look. 

When he squints further down the back street, he notices that the first guy definitely has a metal pipe, too, and is using it to push up a woman’s neck to keep her from moving. She’s yelling louder now, voice laced in anger and spitting threats like: “Let me go right now! I swear to god if you poops don’t I’ll-” 

“You’ll what? Huh? You’re not going anywhere!” one of the men laughs, tightening his grip on her wrists.

The woman kicks her legs furiously, but her hands are held tight by the two (robbers? rapists?) and it’s not getting her far. It’s at this point that Kaneda decides to step in and help the poor lady. Maybe if he’s lucky she’ll give him a reward for his noble deed, too.

“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Kaneda yells out in the most enraged voice he can muster. He’s pretty sure he can take on those guys, no problem, but it’s best if he seems like he’s not about to take any of their CRAP, incase they’re thinking of putting their fists up, too. 

The bozos turn their heads to him, and Kaneda can feel a smirk crawling onto his face at the idea of pummeling their faces and having them run with their tails between their legs.

“Ya! Who are you?” A goon shouts out, removing the pipe from the woman’s neck to point lazily at him. “Scram kid, or I’ll beat the crap out of you, too.” 

Kaneda is in no way going to scram, and moves in closer, steps heavy on the cracked pavement. It’s over for these guys, just wait-- but, nothing ever goes according to plan, and the woman ignores him in favor of taking advantage of the sudden distraction to make a move. 

She swings one of her legs, hard, and blows it into the stomach of the guy closest to her, sending him back into his friend behind him. It doesn’t stop there, as soon she’s stepping forward to punch at the goon she didn’t hit and turning away to follow up with a back kick. 

Kaneda is stunned at the display, but recovers in his step quickly to run at the attackers as well. Maybe his punches aren’t as practiced and smooth as hers, but the whole point of getting involved was to help this lady out. It doesn’t take much longer to wrestle the two criminals into the ground, before Kaneda gets up and holds out his hand to help the woman up. It’s darker now (Kaneda hates how it gets so dark so fast in the winter) and he still can’t really make out the girls features. But standing next to her, he realizes that she’s just as tall as he is; maybe even an inch taller. 

He opens his mouth to ask her what her name is, when one of the men on the floor sits up and swings the pipe he was holding. It just grazes the woman’s leg, as they’re too far for it to really get hit, but Kaneda takes that as a sign to get out of there. 

“Okay, screw you,” he spits at the man, before grabbing the lady’s hand again and pulling her along with him.

“H-Hey! What are you doing?” She yells out, yanking her hand out from his. 

“Sorry! But I’m not interested in going ‘round two’ with those guys, unless you are,” Kaneda replies, jerking his thumb out at the dark figures running towards them.

She stares in their direction for a few seconds, before sighing and shaking her head. “Alright then, let’s get out of here.”

The two bolt to Kaneda’s motorcycle, hopping on and bursting out of the alleyway in record speed. Kaneda isn’t sure if the goons back there wanna go for a chase, but he doesn’t look back and just keeps on driving. The woman has her arms wrapped around Kaneda’s waist, and he realizes that he doesn’t really know where to bring her. So he decides to just take a guess as where she’d like to go.

\-----

The wheels of his bike skirt in a slow halt in front of the park. It is well lit and well kept, carefully planted trees sprouted up around the benches and fountain towards the center. There’s no one around though, probably because of how late it’s getting, so Kaneda just gets off to let this girl rest. 

He doesn’t know why she didn’t tell him to drive in a different direction, or asked to be dropped off somewhere where she could use a payphone. Or maybe she did and he didn’t hear her, but now the two are in the park and this fun little distraction is over so he really needs to get going-

But as Kaneda turns around to tell this woman just that (unless she’s up to being shown a good time), he feels himself stop in his tracks, words frozen on the tip of his tongue. Because of course, who else would this mysterious women be than Kei Whatever-Her-Name-Is standing right in front of him. 

And well, shoot.

She’s brushing a bit of dirt off her clothes, a frown tugging at her lips before she looks up at him, still leaning over to fix her skirt. He can’t tell if he should start talking first, but she does it for him. 

“You’re… Kaneda? Right? Kaneda Shotaro from my homeroom?” she asks, and while he shouldn’t be surprised that she remembers him, seeing as they have had a few encounters before this (and that outburst in class wasn’t something she’d be able forget so easily), Kaneda can’t help but feel a swell of pride, and an easy grin graces his features. 

“Yeah, that’s me alright. And you’re Kei… guess that gets the awkward part out of the way.”

She arches an eyebrow at that. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Kei asks, a hand on her hip and weight shifting to her right leg. 

“Aw you know, because I kinda saved your butt back there-”

“You saved my butt? Oh please, you got about as much done as a baby would have,” she laughs, “I don’t know if you noticed, but I got out of that situation fine on my own.”

“Well I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not finished. And how do you think you were gonna get outta there without my bike, huh?” Kaneda replies, patting the handlebars of his motorcycle for emphasis, “Were you planning on out running those d-bags in the middle of night?”

Kei sighs, hand still on her right hip while the other comes up to brush a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Kaneda wants to bite her, or something. 

“Yeah, alright, you got me there, tough guy. Do I owe you now? Do you want me to give you the answers to the precalculus homework?” It comes out in a playful tone, but Kei’s not stupid, and she knows that a boy like Kaneda is thinking of.

Those were exactly the words the delinquent was looking for, and he jumps on it right away. Kaneda closes his eyes and chuckles, leaning back onto his bike. 

“You’re smart, ha? Yeah, some sort of compensation would be really rad, Kei. And I’m not gonna force you into doing anything, you know, but I can tell you’re not just a dame who’s gonna get pushed around by whatever bozo comes up looking for some action. I think that’s cool, and it’d be real cool if we could bang.”

Her eyebrows raise, not seeming to expect how (un-smooth? lame?) his wording would be. Kaneda isn’t one to fish for girls though; if they want him, then he’s not gonna butter them up or anything. And if he wants them, then there’s no better way to show it then just being straight up. 

Kei’s eyes are illuminated by the lampposts anyway, but there’s a slight sparkle in them that makes Kaneda’s heart jump a little bit. She’s pretty, alright, skin a slight flush that makes her glow, thick black hair shining when she tilts her head, tongue poking out to wet her rosy lips.

Kaneda has seen prettier girls, he’s slept with more eager girls, he’s locked lips with guys that made him feel warm and fuzzy inside, and generally seen stars with a few people. Yet, that all melts away when he considers this thing with Kei. He’s experienced a lot with a lot of people, but none of them have gotten that excited flutter in Kaneda’s stomach like her before. It’s fun; or at least, he hopes it will be if she says yes. 

She seems to contemplate the offer, eyes cast down for a few seconds before looking back up at him and saying the magic words:

“Screw it. Yeah, let’s go.”

\-----

The two decide to go to Kei’s house, since her aunt probably won’t be home, and Kaneda would rather not run into his crappy parents at a time like this. She was right, as they have the house to themselves, but it doesn’t really matter because they only make it to the living room (with a single lamp on). 

Kaneda takes a couple of seconds to get a feel for their couch, which is soft and comfy from wear. It’s nice. 

“Oh man, you guys have a nice couch. This is sick,” he says, pulling off his shirt with a grin and leaning back on the armrest. 

Kei huffs, sitting up on her knees from across him while she undoes her bra under her top. It’s just to be comfortable, Kaneda guesses, and he can take care of the rest in a minute. 

“Thanks, you also wouldn’t happen to have anything with you because-”

“No problem, ma’am, got the goods right here,” he cuts her off, pulling the rubber out of his wallet. 

She rolls her eyes. “Of course you do. I hope you weren’t planning on this.”

“I think we both know that I was,” Kaneda laughs, “Now get over here.”

\----- 

After telling each other goodbye, Kaneda rides back home, and goes to bed quietly. His parents are asleep, and after turning and twisting on his lumpy floor-mattress, he is, too. The clock reads 11:30 by the time he closes his eyes; not bad. 

The next day at school proves to be uneventful.

When he reaches his homeroom, he’s got about a minute before the teacher comes and starts his 7 hours of torture. Of course, Kei is already sitting at the desk behind him, pulling notebooks and pencils onto the scratched desk. The closer he gets to his seat, the easier it is to see a red mark peeking out from her neat, white collar. He smirks at the sight of it, but there’s no time to make some sort of comment as he settles in his chair, so Kaneda lets it go.

And he feels good, a pep in his step as he goes down the littered stairs to the nurse’s office at lunch. He hasn’t spoken to Kei yet either, deciding not to touch the subject because… because he doesn’t want to. The nurse drags him by the arm into a kiss when he opens the door. It’s not exactly unwelcome, and he reciprocates. Kaneda feels an emptiness building in his stomach when she pulls him further in the room, but he also doesn’t know how he should feel, so he doesn’t think much of it. 

\-----

Kaneda stops her from leaving the classroom at the end of the school day, resting against the frame of the classroom exit with his arm outstretched to the door jamb. It works well enough, she can’t get through the door, but now neither can his classmates, who begin to hollar when the exit gets crowded. 

“Can you move already, dork?” Someone shouts from the back.

“Can you use the other goshdarn door? We have two for a reason, idiot,” Kaneda shouts back, waiting for the grumbling line of 17 year olds to disperse before returning to his task. Kei tries to leave with the other kids, so Kaneda grabs her arm to keep her from going. 

“Don’t touch me,” she pulls back quickly, words biting and sharp as she glowers at him.

“Hey, alright, I’m sorry,” Kaneda says, trying to get some genuine emotion behind his words.

All day Kei has looked kinda distant, but he hasn’t known her that long, and figures she looks like that all the time. But there’s a sort of angry bubbling under her skin, he can tell, only making her look more uncomfortable in the situation. So he decides not to touch her anymore, holding his hands up in self defense.

“You got me Kei; I just wanna talk,” he continues, meeting her eyes.

Her eyebrows raise, and he figures that, yeah, they’ve both been expecting this, if the way Kei stiffens is any hint. There’s a strange tension in the air, as though what comes next is nothing but bad news. And after the familiarity that’s built up between them in the span of a few hours? The tension translates to just plain awkward. 

“So, do you wanna stay in here or should I walk you to the front entrance like a gentleman?” Kaneda asks after a few seconds of silence. 

“Oh, like you know how a gentleman should act,” Kei retorts back, shoulders relaxing into a neutral stance, “It’s alright, we can walk first. But I have club first, so you’ll have to wait.”

“Oh come on! You can’t skip a day?” Kaneda groans, grin falling quickly. 

“I’m not expecting you do try and do things after school, but that doesn’t mean we all do. Literary club is serious, and it’s only on Fridays, so I have to go,” she says, face straight and serious. 

“Alright then, little lady. I’ll bring you there first.”

After school, their prior conversation resumes. They put their slippers into their lockers and slip their shoes back on, and Kaneda returns to Kei’s side to begin.

“So, I don’t really get what happened up there, but I’m just gonna go ahead and apologize now, sugar.”

Kei rolls her eyes at the name, but silently urges him to continue with a cross of her arms. 

“I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you?”

“Is that really the only reason you invited me out here to talk? I accept your apology; just don’t touch me again, Kaneda. The big show of blocking the classroom door wasn’t for nothing; was it?” She asks, the questions rhetorical, because she already knows why they’re having this conversation in the first place, as redundant as it is.  
`  
“Well, you’re as smart as a whip, huh? Yeah, you got me; that’s not why I dragged ya out here, Kei,” he says, giving a wide smile and scratching the back of his neck. “Nah, I was really meaning to tell you that you’ve got a great body and you’re a tough gal. This is basically what I was talkin’ about last time too, but I’m into sleeping with you again. Maybe regularly if you’re into that sort of thing. Whaddya say?”

Kei’s eyebrows rise into her bangs; somehow, his bluntness still gets a rise out of her. “And what do you suppose that makes us? I’m not interested in being your girlfriend.”

Kaneda chuckles at that, rubbing his neck. “Yeah, I figure. But that’s also not what I’m sayin’. We don’t have to date to keep doing this, right? So let's just keep it casual. Tell me when you wanna do it, and I’ll come over. Ring my house, I don’t know, and I’ll do the same for you.”

This doesn’t seem to be an unfamiliar concept to Kei, but she still bothers to ask “Why me?”

“Because I like doing this. We can just chill out, and get busy.”

Kei pinches the bridge of her nose with a sigh. It feels repetitive, too familiar, how they fall back into each other. Why does it seem like over and over and over again, they sleep together and ask if it can happen again? Was that the extent of their relationship? Unsure friends with benefits? 

It seems shallow, why they both end up agreeing to such an arrangement. But they both think it: how could people as different as Kaneda and Kei be anything more?

Kaneda tilts his head to the side when she doesn’t respond after a few seconds, and he gives a fake yawn to get her going. It seems to do the trick, because she rolls her eyes at the display, arms crossed and mouth pulled into a tight pout. The sun is already beginning to set behind them; dosing the two in golden light and orange hues. 

Kei needs to think about this, maybe even more than the first time this happened (which was really only yesterday.) By agreeing to… whatever arrangement Kaneda is trying to lure her into, what is she saying? That she wants to spend more time with him? That she’s desperate for whatever anyone can give her? That she’s just his new arm candy, here to replace the last girl?

She knows that she’s stronger than that. Kei understands all of those implications, and knows that they’re not true. She even gets that she doesn’t really like Kaneda, but stills feels a pull tugging at her insides. 

And really, is there anything to lose?

“Take me out for a drink, Kaneda. You could afford to feign some manners, you know.”

Kaneda’s grin widens impossibly further at the words, and slides over to her, ready to woo her over again. 

“If you insist, Kei. And, hey, since it’s a Friday, how about I take you out for a drink?” 

\-----

It’s around 9 when they stumble out of Harukiya (the only place that accepts Kaneda’s presence around these parts), slightly buzzed, though Kei is much more articulate and seems to be good at holding her liquor. Kaneda isn’t too bad himself, but he’s got a dangerous amount of confidence now, and pushes Kei into one of the cracked plaster walls that hold the entire crappy building up.

He cages her in like he’s practiced since middle school, and realizes that she really is tall. It doesn’t work like it usually does with short girls, but he doesn’t stop, leaning in close so that his breath mingles with hers. 

It smells like booze, and Kei asks, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Her voice is low, but not scary like it usually is, so he’s not afraid to answer with an equally quiet “‘m gonna kiss you now.”

Uhhh if u wanna describe it then go off ig (in a dirty alley? really kaneda?)

\----- 

“Okay, no, Kaneda. The formula goes ‘log-base A times B equals C’! You just take A out of base and make it it’s own number to the power of C. It’s simple, but you need to be able to understand it if you’re going to be able to move on to the next problems!”

Kaneda lets out a pained yell before slamming his head into the table. 

It’s a Sunday morning, about a month after Kaneda and Kei’s agreement to be each other's repeat fling. They both sit crossed legged on the living room floor, textbooks and loose sheets of paper spread messily over the coffee table. 

The whole “casual” thing has gone as smoothly as ever, with Kei explaining away Kaneda’s constant presence around the house as “a classmate I’m tutoring” to her aunt. It wasn’t the intention for the excuse to be true, but Kei offered her services to him after getting a glimpse of his Algebra test score. 23/40 was enough for her to willingly help him; not that Kaneda really cared about school.

She’s still never been to his own place, but Kaneda isn’t rushing to let her see the dump he lives in. San-ya isn’t exactly a reputable neighborhood. 

“Hey! Okay, this is actually important, Kaneda. You need to start getting this stuff down before you’re forced to repeat the class. And this is only the one that I know of…” Kei trails off frustratedly, reaching to the other side of the table for an eraser. 

“Why are you even helping me out? I could give less of a crap about my grade,” Kaneda mumbles into the table. 

Kei doesn’t answer him, in favor of completing a few of her own homework problems. 

“Are you going to get up? Or should we just call it quits for tod-” Kei cuts off, falling silent at the sound of the front door opening. 

Kaneda looks up from his place on the table, making direct eye contact with a man he vaguely remembers. 

He’s wearing a gray button up, sleeves rolled up to the elbows and a dark blazer folded over his arm. The man pauses at the sight of him, eyes narrowed in a deadly glare. Of course, he’s the boootyhole from the bar.

Kei never mentions he guy, so he didn’t realize he was still part of her life. Kaneda wishes that she had said something before Captain Mustache stepped into their study session looking like he’s getting ready to fight. 

Kei jumps up from her spot suddenly, eyes wide and giving a breathy “Ryu!”

‘Ryu’ nods in acknowledgement, greeting with a curt “Kei” and laying his coat over the back of a kitchen chair.

“What are you doing here? Should I get you a water?”

“A water would be fine; I’m just here to discuss some plans with your aunt.”

This changes Kei’s demeanor quickly. There must have been some code word in there, because a serious air falls to her expression, and she nods before walking into the kitchen. Ryu turns his attention to Kaneda with an equally stony look. Kaneda can’t really tell if Ryu recognizes him or not, but he’s not happy to see him either way.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Ryu asks, voice commanding. 

“Nothing much, just studying with Kei,” Kaneda replies, lacing his hands behind his head and leaning back into the couch. He doesn’t really know why he always feels the need to put up a cool and quite-frankly-dooshy act all the time, but Kei being gone has enabled that part of him, he guesses. “What’s it matter to you, Ryo?”

“His name isn’t Ryo, it’s Ryu,” Kei sighs, walking back into the living room with a glass in hand. 

Kaneda smirks at that, rolling his head. “Oh, sorry, not like the Devilman character? That’s too bad, he had a nice set of ti-”

“Kaneda! Knock it off!” Kei exasperates, before quickly turning back to Ryu, “I’m so sorry Ryu, he tends to speak before he thinks,” she emphasizes, looking back at Kaneda with a death glare.

Ryo doesn’t seem to care for her apology, face still pulled in a hard stare, before shaking his head. “I don’t care what’s wrong with him. Tell your friend to learn some manners, and get him out of here. Chiyo won’t be happy knowing you’re keeping a nuicance of a friend around, especially now,” he mumbles the end, but Kaneda can still hear him. 

She whispers now, turning her head slightly when she tells Moustache that “He’s certainly not a threat; he’s fine staying here. I do need to help him.”

Ryu still doesn’t want to hear it. Kei purses her lips, before sighing (something Kaneda seems to make her do often), and nodding her head. “Fine, I’ll get him out of here. Kaneda, get your stuff together, let’s go.”

Her resignation takes Kaneda off guard. She’s always headstrong and stands her ground. Kei never takes any of his crap if she doesn’t want to (pointless things are usually a different story, like whether they should drink sake or soju), so why does she sway so easily to this guy’s requests? And the water thing?


End file.
